Virtual Exits
by NoteEmmy
Summary: Noa has decided to capture one of Kaiba's closest in an attempt to overthrow Kaiba Corporation. It's up to the CEO to remedy the situation!


It was an unusually quiet four o'clock afternoon at Kaiba Corporation. The CEO knew better than to let his guard down but for once he couldn't help but lean back in his chair. His eyes closed for a brief moment, a deep breath drawn in to fill his lungs before it was released quietly. The sun was shining in brightly through the windows, warming him without the need for the heater. It was almost warmer than any fall day had the right to be, making him feel the slightest bit uncomfortable in his suit jacket. He'd never take it off, though. That would be entirely too casual. It would fit the way he was suddenly raising his hands behind his head and leaning further back, however.

The action of relaxing felt strange and nearly unwanted. His body was almost forcing it on him, forcing him to realize that something bad was about to approach this way and he'd better take the time to organize his priorities before it did. That was how things worked in the world. One moment of peace equaled about fifty moments of chaos. Kaiba Seto was not naive enough to believe a storm wasn't headed his way. He was not dumb enough to let his guard down for one second. Not even with this.

Too easily as he'd predicted the door of his office rudely was pushed open without a single knock and he righted himself immediately. A glare was set on the on comer. Isono seemed in a frantic hurry, approaching the desk with a deep bow. Kaiba's hands went to knit together underneath his chin.

"Seto-sama, I apologize for the sudden intrusion! However I have worrying news!" He really did seem to be very upset about something or other. Isono could be emotional at times but he was a good man. He did his job better than Kaiba had ever known any man to, aside himself that was.

One brown eyebrow arched. "Continue." He was waiting for it. Something terrible. The stocks dropping. A virus in his database. Someone trying to take over the world- ...his business. Surely he meant to think his business.

Damn Yuugi and his stupid escapades. Kaiba suddenly grew impatient with that one stray thought. "Out with it." He growled.

Isono jumped but nodded. "One of the V.R. pods at KaibaLand has had a serious malfunction." The bodyguard's tone grew serious, but still uneasy.

Kaiba stood, his hands bracing the desk. "What kind?"

"There's a patron trapped inside! Our technicians cannot get him out, no matter what we try. Every time they try to break into the game the man was playing they get a teal colored set of letters that string across the screen." He recounted the events from the amusement park security facility.

The brunet seemed just the slightest perplexed. "Letters?" Code, surely. But code was usually in numbers. What business did letters have being in his line of perfect ones and zeroes?

"The letters K and N." The news was delivered very darkly as Isono's sunglasses slipped down over his nose for one second.

Kaiba stiffened, his hands clenching tightly. "Get the car. We're heading over there. _Now_." No. How could it be? That brat? How could he be back? Surely he'd died back during the shut down of the virtual world. He was choosing now to exact revenge? It was a good plan, too, Kaiba had to admit. If he killed the man inside and everyone found out that Kaiba's technology was unsafe, he'd never sell anything of the kind again.

That nuisance.

"Seto-sama, don't you want to know who is trapped inside?" Isono asked, wavering from the hurried feeling he'd been wearing just a second ago.

"Irrelevant. We're leaving."

Isono nodded slowly. "Y-yes sir." With that he bowed and excused himself quickly from the room.

Kaiba waited until the man was gone from his sight before he slumped over his desk just a little. Now was no time for that. He had to act fast if he was going to fix this. And he already knew he'd have to subject himself to forcing himself into that world and staring that brat in the eyes again. He'd have to risk this in order to make sure that nothing happened to his reputation. Kaiba Corporation would continue to stand strong. That was the only thing he knew would end up being true in this.

The card necklace he always wore was pulled up from underneath his shirt, the locket held tightly in his hand. He popped it open to reveal the picture of his younger brother, staring at it sadly for a moment before shutting it. The necklace was removed before he sat back at his desk. The card locket was swiped into a secret compartment underneath his desk. A smaller compartment popped out from the side, revealing a series of small black disks. His fingers brushed over each one before grabbing one in the center, with shaking hands now, before slipping the necklace back on and placing the disk into the inside pocket of his jacket.

He didn't have time to think about this any longer. With that done he pushed the compartment back in almost violently, angry now. Anger was an easy thing to feel, and it felt good. Better than wallowing, that was for sure. The man stood and strode to the door before taking an even heavier and quicker stride down to the main lobby. Dutifully Isono was waiting there for him. It would take only minutes to be at the amusement part. As he sat in the backseat, Isono whizzing around traffic and lines of cars, Kaiba had to take another breath.

The car screeched to a stop at the gates of KaibaLand, patrons stopping to see who was so important enough to nearly mow down half the crowd. They were in an immediate uproar when Kaiba exited the vehicle. He nodded to Isono to give the okay for crowd control before he disappeared down a back alley. Only one hundred and twenty steps did it take to get to the underground security facility, Kaiba counting each one to try and keep his mind clear. Only thirty more to get through the doors and into the largest room in the back.

"Everyone out. Now." He growled to all the bumbling so-called technicians. "Act quickly and I may not consider firing every one of you after you all failed so spectacularly to do your jobs." His tone had gone dark, eyes narrowing. It took fifteen seconds for them all to bow and rush as fast as they could out of the room. It left Kaiba with hundreds of monitors and one lone V.R. pod in the center of the room.

He went to one of the keypads off to the left, trying to isolate the program Noa must have been accessing, keeping it away from the mainframe. Surely Isono had taped off the rest of the V.R. games since the incident happened. There would be no harm in shutting down the other pods for now to make sure the virus didn't spread. Once that was done he booted up the one in the room, a gentle and familiar hum greeting his ears.

The door opened again, Isono locking it behind him and standing in front of it, waiting for order. Kaiba turned to him, giving him a serious look. He reached for the disk, tossing it at the man. Isono caught it carefully, looking at the stripes on the side of it. His eyebrows raised. "Sir- Contingency Plan Sigma?" His tone was one of disbelief.

Kaiba simply nodded. "Insert it into the manual drive on the pod if I give you the signal." It might not be necessary at all, but it also could very much be needed. He wouldn't take the chance that he didn't have a back up plan.

"Sir- please. We can do this without-"

"Do not question me, Isono." Kaiba barked, glaring at the other.

The bodyguard frowned but nodded, his hand clutching the black disk. "Yes, Seto-sama."

Kaiba's head rose. "Good." He turned back to the control panel. "You'll have a window into the game, but you won't be able to do anything to help me while I'm there with the exception of Sigma. I won't tolerate tardiness. The moment I give that order you are to do it."

It was a little silly, saying something like that. Even Isono couldn't help but turn away. How would Kaiba be able to punish him if the man wasn't around again after this? But still, he would never disobey a direct order. Not one of such grave importance. "Yes, Seto-sama."

Pleased with this Kaiba turned back around. "All you'll have to do is put it in. I can voice activate its contents from inside." It was strange to try and ease Isono's burden. He knew the man could handle the task, but ... after all his years of service, how could he really ask his oldest confidant to effectively kill him? It was the only softness he could afford. He grew dark once more as he walked over to the pod. "Don't fail me on this, Isono."

"I would never, Seto-sama."

Kaiba looked him over, one twitch of a frown before nodding. The pod opened as he pressed on it. Settling himself inside, relaxing was hard to do. He couldn't think of anything other than failure in this, but even then... even then, Mokuba would be alright. The pod door closed, sealing him in semi-darkness. He willed himself to close his eyes even as he felt trapped by his own creation. It felt like he was being pressed down upon, a rush of wind screaming by his ears. Entering this world was never easy for him.

The moment he felt the disconnect his eyes snapped open and he found himself standing in one of the many grassy hills of the popular warrior game he'd designed. He rose his arm to call his Duel Disk immediately, not ready to be unprotected, even in this environment. "Come out, Noa. I know you're here." He called calmly.

The trees rustled and for a long minute, nothing seemed to happen. "Don't make me rip apart the codes to find you, you coward!" Kaiba growled, growing more irked by the moment.

All too soon that annoying, childish laughter filtered into the surrounding world and Kaiba couldn't help but sneer in disgust. "Long time no see, Seto." The child smirked cruelly. "I thought I'd make my big comeback in a rather big way. Do you approve?"

Kaiba's arms crossed. "At four o'clock on a Wednesday? Not very good with plans, are you. No one even knows you're here. No one save me and my staff. You failed, as usual." He smirked now. Pushing this kid was one thing he was very ready to do. It was easy, too. If it was the last thing he got to take his frustrations out, he would go to the limit.

Noa's hand clenched at his side as he tried to ignore the barb. "Your approval isn't something that matters to me."

"No that was your daddy's, wasn't it? And even he abandoned you." The smirk got worse.

Noa already was losing it. "Shut up!' The clouds above turned black, responding to Noa's mood. It was as if he had been the main player in the game. Kaiba instantly recognized this for what it was.

He scoffed. "So you steal one of our paying patrons and intend to switch their place? You already think you own this world but you know nothing."

The boy grinned. "I merely borrowed player-one status. But I bet you can't wait to see who will cause Kaiba Corporation's downfall." He teased. His hand raised, revealing a leash.

Kaiba stiffened, on his guard immediately. He was drawing the customer into this. No good. If he could have convinced whomever got caught that it was a bug in the system and offered them lots of money to stay quiet this would have gone well. But seeing the CEO in here would do too much damage to keep anyone quiet. It was then that he really realized Noa was intending to kill the person who had been caught, merely to ruin the corporation's name. That could not happen.

A very cold thought passed through him. Weren't Wednesdays the days the orphanage visited?

Had Noa caught a kid?

A child?

"Come on out my new pet!" Noa brimmed with joy as he pulled the leash so hard a body tumbled out of a void behind him and to the ground.

The person growled, rubbing at his head and then his back. "I can't believe this. Of course this is the kind of shit that would happen the one time I visit this dump!" He complained. "I can never have anything good happen to me when KAIBA is involved."

That voice was annoyingly familiar. Kaiba was taken far aback, everything in him fading for a moment as disbelief hit him very, very hard.

"Do you like him, Seto? I always did have a thing for dogs."

Kaiba's shoulders started shaking. "Y-you ... you pick one person ... one person in the world with which to try and make me negotiate for my life, Mokuba's life, their life, and Kaiba Corporation..."

"Eh?" Noa suddenly wasn't amused anymore.

The brunet's laughter absolutely tore through the entire virtual world, his entire body shaking so suddenly as he laughed harder than he ever remembered himself laughing in his entire life. "And you pick the mutt?" He couldn't breathe. He even had to bend over to put a hand on his knee. His ribs were beginning to burn.

"This isn't funny!" Jonouchi cried, hands turning to fists as his anger rose. "You'd better get me outta here or I'm going to tell the world what happened here! You can't do this kind of shit to people!" It was uncertain whether or not he was talking to Kaiba or Noa just then.

"Shut up, dog." Noa barked, pulling back hard on the leash.

"He is a mutt, isn't he?" Kaiba was still recovering from laughing.

Jonouchi's temper flared harder. "I'm serious! Now isn't the time for that! He's obviously going to kill me or you or BOTH of us so why don't you shut up with your laughing and fix this!"

"Stop your yapping!" Kaiba commanded, though he still had the most amused smirk on his lips. He righted his stance. His arms crossed over his chest. "Do you think I'm Yuugi? Do you think I'm the hero type?"

Jonouchi tried to pull against his restraints. "Obviously not! But you-"

"Obviously not!" Kaiba yelled back, another short one-note chuckle escaping him. "You've got to be kidding me, Noa. This was your plan? This! Did you research this at all? You're such a failure!"

Noa was a little confused and very worried so suddenly. Then it all seemed to snap into place. "You wouldn't dare..."

"Wouldn't I? This is what you get for being so useless. I think it is the only thing Gozaburo and I will ever agree on. So much for a comeback." The smirk had turned malicious.

"KAIBA YOU BETTER NOT LEAVE. YUUGI WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU- I'LL NEVER FORGIVE YOU- THIS ISN'T RIGHT!" Jonouchi was suddenly just as scared as Noa, and resorted to screaming where he couldn't pull control into this situation. Kaiba was his only hope. Surely the other wasn't that heartless...

Blue eyes rolled. "You make this too easy, mutt. At least you'll have the pet you always wanted for eternity, useless brat." Kaiba commented dryly before disappearing completely from the world. The pod opened and he jumped from it quickly. "Isono, the disk." His hand jerked out quickly as the other was busy sealing that spot of the virtual world permanently so that Noa couldn't try and escape elsewhere.

The older man was slightly unsure, though the disk was handed over. "Sir... are you really going to... let him perish this way? What will the public think?"

Kaiba smirked as he slid the disk fluidly into the computer slot, the screen bursting with multi-colored code. "If it was someone the media cared about I might have thought about it. But a useless dog is just that." On the screen next to him he pulled up the Battle City contracts, finding Jonouchi's and printing it up in the corner of the room. "Have his signature lifted onto a waiver for a Virtual Reality testing job. The cops won't dig further than that, and given the money we throw at them to keep them quiet, and who it is, they won't say anything more about it."

The virtual bubble collapsed in on itself. Kaiba watched with a very dark grin, feeling some sick sense of satisfaction. "Look at that, mutt. You're going to be a Kaiba Corporation employee for all of five seconds. About as much as I think this company can handle of your filth." A secondary request popped up on the screen,

_**Have Letter To Mokuba Sent?**_

Kaiba eyed it, frowning to himself. He'd nearly forgotten the goodbye he'd programmed in there. There was one for each contingency. He'd never be taken from his brother without having words of his own. No one would take that away from him. He sighed, mousing over the "N" option. The program closed shortly after.

The CEO stepped away from the console, fixing his suit and taking a breath in. He needed to calm himself down from such sick glee before he could start giving out the right orders. Isono was busy in the corner looking over the old contract, having nothing else to do right now and honestly not wanting to watch Seto when he was being so cruel. He turned once he felt the other staring at him. "Sir?" He asked with a salute, awaiting orders.

"Have the virtual reality world scrubbed from top to bottom. I'll work on some new codes for it once I get back to the office. Have the body deposited to the hospital and contact whatever family he has. Make sure the contracts are finished before that's done." His tone had slid into calm and cool. "Contact the police force after that so they won't have to come to us. The usual persuasion." He started walking, Isono sticking by his side, nodding. "Issue a brief statement about the down time of the virtual reality sector of Kaiba Corporation. Maintenance. Make sure the time stamps on the mutt's brain death and this don't even come close to matching up." He snorted to himself.

The sun outside caught the brunet again and he stood still for a quiet moment. His head raised towards the sky. Another breath was drawn in, this one full of fresh air. He could hear the kids on the roller coasters laughing and crying with joy. Another laugh escaped him. "His family will barely know the difference, I'm sure."


End file.
